Ice-Blocking with Kristoff
by Lindstrom
Summary: *Queen Elsa's Councilor series.* When Kristoff takes Anna, Elsa and Bern ice-blocking, he finds out that the Ice Queen could teach him a thing or two about playing in the snow. One-shot.


**Arendelle and the movie characters belong to Disney. Thanks Disney!**

**Author Note for new readers: The only OC in this story is Bern, Queen Elsa's Councilor over Economic Affairs. He's sweet on Elsa, and good friends with Kristoff and Anna.**

* * *

"I sit on that?" Elsa asked Kristoff, looking at the rectangular block of ice he'd just pushed off the small, rope-drawn sled he was using to distribute ice blocks. They were at the top of a hill in the Albion Basin, in the foothills above Arendelle Village.

"Yep," said Kristoff. He wore his ice harvester gear, complete with mittens. Elsa was in a plain cotton dress, although she was wearing ankle boots that laced up instead of the dainty slippers she preferred to wear around the castle. Her hands and head were bare.

"I think it needs to be bigger," Elsa said, "and maybe it needs something to hold onto." She fluttered her fingers at the ice block and began adding to it.

Kristoff left her to her ice sculpture and pulled the sled over to Anna where he pushed two ice blocks off the sled. She looked at her ice block with the same dubious expression Elsa had given hers, pulling her wool cloak more tightly around her and settling her sheepskin-lined bonnet firmly on her head.

"It'll be fun!" Kristoff promised her, then he turned to Bern, who was hanging back by the big sled with Sven. "Are you sure you don't want to try?"

Bern waved him off. "I'm perfectly content to just watch this first run." Kristoff had told Bern to dress for getting dirty, but instead he had a smart wool cloak wrapped around a tailored coat, with blue trousers tucked into polished black knee boots and a fur hat. He probably couldn't have fun in that get-up even if he wanted to.

Olaf came laughing and staggering back up the hill. He'd belly-flopped as soon as Sven had pulled the sled to a stop and skidded all the way to the bottom.

"You could come with me, Bern!" Elsa invited him. "I've got room!"

Kristoff looked over at what Elsa had created. She had done it all wrong and completely missed the point of ice-blocking, which was to risk your neck going downhill on a plain piece of ice as fast as possible with no control whatsoever. He gave her a look of mock exasperation. "Is that an ice couch?"

"Well, yes. It seemed a lot more comfortable than that block. Do you like the snow cushions I made?" Elsa replied. Underneath the couch, a runner ran the length of the couch, curving up in the front like that the runners on his sled.

"I could go with you if Bern doesn't want to," Anna offered.

"That is NOT how you go ice blocking!" Kristoff insisted. "Bern, you go with Elsa. I want Anna do it the right way on this first run."

Bern approached the ice couch and looked it over. Elsa seated herself on a snow cushion and patted the one next to her. "Once you sit down, I can make the ottoman," she told him.

Kristoff rolled his eyes.

"I'm only doing this because I love you," Anna told him, gingerly fitting herself onto the ice block.

"That's a good enough reason for this first run," Kristoff said. "After this one, you'll do it because you love ice-blocking. Put your hands behind you and hold on. Don't lean forward because if you fall off on your face, you could knock out some teeth. You want to fall off to the back or the sides. That's safer because then it will be mostly bruises unless you break a bone but try not to do that. And if you see a tree coming at you, remember that you're the one that has to get out of the way, not the tree. Watch out for dimples in the snow because it might mean there's a hollow underneath and you'll go all the way under the snow. Don't let your feet fly off the ice block because if your foot catches on something, you could break a leg. This is so fun!"

Anna was giving him a horrified look he hadn't seen since they'd been chased by wolves, but she just needed to give ice-blocking a chance and then she'd love it. He set a foot behind her on the ice block and gave her a gentle shove. Her ice block slid over the edge of the slope and away she went.

"Kristoff! How do I steer?" Anna screamed back at him.

"You can't!" Kristoff hollered. "That's what makes ice-blocking so much fun!" He sat down on his own ice block and pushed himself off after her, watching Anna's red braids flying in the wind to the accompaniment of a very long scream. He was impressed. Anna could probably set off an avalanche as well as he could.

About halfway down the hill, Anna either hit something uneven under the snow, or she leaned too far one direction because she went rolling off the ice block and landed face down in the snow. Kristoff rolled off his own ice block to make sure she was all right. Elsa and Bern went skidding past on that ridiculous ice couch, their feet up on an ottoman as Elsa steered them around obstacles with gusts of cold wind and the occasional blast of snow. Bern managed to wave at Kristoff as they went past, Olaf sliding after them. He rolled his eyes at them again. They couldn't possibly be having as much fun as he and Anna were having.

Anna pushed up on her elbows and got her face out of the snow. Kristoff picked her up and set her on her feet, brushing off the snow. "Wasn't that great? Let's try it again! I've got a whole load of ice blocks! We can even come back tomorrow!"

Anna picked up a handful of snow, packed it carefully into a snowball, and then pitched it at him point blank. Anna had once gotten a snowball all the way over a crevasse with enough force to enrage Marshmallow, and judging from the way that one stung when it hit his chest, she'd thrown it that hard again.

"Hey!" he protested.

"This is fun?!" she demanded. "This is fun!?" She advanced on him, firing snowballs as fast as she could make them.

"Well, yeah, you just have to give it a chance!" Kristoff said, backing away and putting his hands up to shield his face. So far she was only hitting him below the neck, but he wasn't sure how much longer that was going to last.

"Fun things involve chocolate, Kristoff!" she hollered. "Fun things involve laughing! Fun things involve being able to steer! Fun things do not involve warnings about severe injury!"

Kristoff was still walking backwards when his heel hit a rock and he fell on his backside. Anna plowed into him and he ended up lying down in the snow with Anna on top of him. He could like this. Then she grabbed a handful of snow and smeared his face with it.

"All right, now it's fun. I'm laughing!" Anna said, and she started to laugh.

Kristoff grabbed her hat and pulled her head down to rub his cold, snowy cheek against hers. She shrieked, pulled away, and sat up.

"You're sitting on my stomach," Kristoff pointed out with a grunt.

"Well, obviously," Anna said, daintily picking chunks of snow off her braid. "I don't want to sit in the snow."

Kristoff wondered if it was worth the effort to dislodge her, and decided not to. Maybe if she punished him enough she'd cheer up and give ice-blocking another chance. She took a very long time to get every possible snowflake off her braids, then she started brushing snow off her skirts, cloak, sleeves and mittens.

"It's really pretty out here today, don't you think?" Kristoff asked from his position flat on his back in the snow, wondering how much longer she was going to sit on his stomach.

"Are you enjoying the view from down there?" Anna asked him politely.

"Yeah. The sky is so blue," he said, putting his hands behind his head to keep his neck out of the snow. "That cloud right there looks like a white carrot."

Anna laid down on her back on top of him, her head on his shoulder, looking up at the clouds. It was a little easier to breathe this way, and lot more pleasant for other reasons. She pointed at the sky. "That's the cloud that looks like a carrot?"

"Mm-hmm. What do you think that other one looks like?" Kristoff said, folding his arms over her stomach. He could feel the line of her body all the way down against him through the thick, warm clothes both of them were wearing. He could tolerate lying in the snow for a reward like this.

"Marshmallows that float in hot chocolate," Anna replied.

"All clouds look like marshmallows that float in hot chocolate," Kristoff said.

She rolled over on him and he braced himself for another face full of snow, but instead she kissed him. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and her hips and pulled her against him, craving the feeling of her body as her mouth wandered over his. It wouldn't have surprised him if the heat he was putting off melted right through the snow and he ended up lying on the grass.

From a hundred miles away, in that version of reality where he wasn't melting into Anna, he heard Olaf say with disapproval, "what are you two doing?"

Kristoff let go of Anna with one arm and patted the snow, picked up a handful, and threw it in the general direction of Olaf's voice.

"You missed," Olaf said.

Anna started to giggle, which interrupted this most blissful kiss.

"Why do we keep bringing him along?" Kristoff asked Anna. When she giggled, her whole body shook, which was very nice and he wanted her to keep laughing as the second best activity to kissing right now.

"Because we love him," Anna answered. "And the alternative is having Gustav following us around instead."

That made Kristoff laugh, which shook Anna. She sighed and gave him a coy look, then bent to his mouth again with tender, teasing kisses.

Anna pulled away long enough to murmur, "What's he going to do if we ignore him? Go back to the castle and tell Gustav on us?"

Kristoff followed her up, wanting her lips again and not caring about Olaf right now.

Suddenly both of them were buried under a load of snow. Olaf had rolled himself up into an enormous snowball and come shaken it all off on top of them.

"Olaf! You're going to pay for that!" Kristoff shouted as he and Anna dug out of the pile of snow.

"Get him, Kristoff!" Anna cheered as Kristoff ran after Olaf.

Olaf belly-flopped and skidded away down the hill. Kristoff stopped and watched him go. Their ice blocks had long since slid down the hill. He took off his hat and shook it out.

"Where did Elsa and Bern go?" Anna asked, looking around.

Kristoff settled his hat back on his head and pointed behind her. "There."

Anna turned. Elsa's ice couch was on another run down the hill, Bern still sitting next to her.

"How is she getting that thing back up the hill?" Kristoff wondered. "Unless she's making a new one every time."

They watched as the ice couch went careening down the slope, with Elsa blasting out wind or snow to steer it away from obstacles. At the bottom of the hill, as it began to slow down, Elsa got up on her knees and hung over the back of the couch. She held out both hands, and a stream of blue ice and wind shot from her palms, pushing the couch forward. Soon, she had the couch going as fast as it had gone on the slope, zipping and turning around the meadow, spraying out snow on the tight curves. The flat meadow at the base of the hill was covered in couch tracks.

"That is so wrong!" Kristoff declared as Elsa aimed the couch at the hill and came flying up towards them.

The couch slid to a stop and Elsa blew up a pile of snow behind them to keep the ice couch from skidding back down the hill.

"Are you two finished now?" Bern asked.

"Because I was going to offer Anna a ride," Elsa added.

"Anna prefers ice-blocking the way nature intended," Kristoff said, putting an arm around Anna's shoulders.

"No I don't. Move, Bern. It's my turn," Anna said, climbing onto the ice couch as Bern climbed off.

Elsa sparkled away the snow pile behind them, and the ice couch slid backwards until Elsa banked and spun it around, to Anna's shriek of delight as it sent a fan of snow into the air on the curve. The ice couch picked up speed on the slope, zipping down the hill as the sisters both shrieked with delight, their braids flying out behind them. Anna had both hands up to catch the wind. At the base of the hill, Elsa turned around and started powering the couch again and they went blasting through the meadow.

"She's doing it wrong," Kristoff said, shaking his head.

"Fun, though," Bern commented.

"You come with me. I've got an ice block with your name on it," Kristoff said, turning to walk back up to the top of the hill. "Are you still coming with me to the ice lakes next week?"

"Do you think I'll survive the experience?" Bern asked him.

"So far I've survived learning how to dance, read, eat with three different forks, salute and tie a necktie. I think you can learn how to saw an ice block," Kristoff said. "If you fall through the ice, I promise not to let you drown."

"If I bring a napkin, can I use it?" Bern asked.

"They'll laugh at you," Kristoff said.

"Fine, I won't bring a napkin," Bern said with a sigh.

"You'll love it, I promise. Hauling ice is even more fun than ice-blocking. If you ask nicely, I'll even find you some decent clothes. I told you to wear clothes you could get dirty today," Kristoff said.

"I don't have clothes like that."

"Pardon me while I gasp with surprise."

Bern gave him a resigned look. "Let me get my last will and testament in order before we leave."

Kristoff clapped him on the shoulder hard enough to make him stagger in the snow. "Good man!"

"Hey, Kristoff, are you mad at me?" Olaf asked as he caught up to them.

"Not forever, Olaf," Kristoff assured him. Anna was right, if it wasn't Olaf, it would just be someone else trying to chaperone them.

"Good! Because Elsa told me to do it," Olaf said cheerfully.

"She did?" Kristoff gave Bern an accusing look.

"It wasn't my idea," Bern objected. "I'm all in favor of kissing."

"How's that coming for you?" Kristoff asked him, trudging through the deep snow.

"Her Majesty is still exercising her veto power," Bern said.

"Politics, huh?" Kristoff said sympathetically.

Bern shrugged. "History is hard to overcome for both people and nations," he said philosophically.

"You'd feel better if you were inches away from death," Kristoff suggested. "There's nothing like ice-blocking to make you forget you've got anything else to worry about." They'd reached the top of the hill and Kristoff got two ice blocks into position.

Bern looked at the block of ice. "Do you really think I'm going to sit on that thing and slide down a hill?"

"If you want a bigger one, cut it yourself next week. I'll take you to Calamity Peak. It's a lot more fun than this baby hill." Kristoff got himself seated on the ice block and started scooting forward.

Bern sighed, shook his head, and folded his long legs up onto the other ice block, pushing himself after Kristoff.

"Yaaaaahhhh!" Kristoff yelled as the ice block sped down the slope, the wind whipping his hat off his head. He could hear Bern yelling behind him, but it was mostly threats of bodily harm, so he stopped paying attention. This hill wasn't as steep as Calamity Peak, where he usually took the trolls ice-blocking, so he had time to enjoy the scenery on the way down.

At the bottom of the hill, Kristoff's ice block slid to a stop. Any run where you didn't get thrown off was a successful run. Bern slid to a stop behind him.

"That was great for a first effort!" Kristoff complimented him.

Bern was not yet capable of speech.

"Wasn't that more fun than what Elsa's doing?" Kristoff demanded.

"That risk of death really does add something to the experience," Bern admitted.

"Want to do it again?"

"Yeah!"

"I've got more blocks at the top," Kristoff said.

On the second run down the hill, Elsa caught up with them at the bottom as Kristoff and Bern lay in the snow, gasping with triumphant laughter that they'd survived another run. She let the couch slide to a stop next to them.

"Kristoff, are you willing to admit you want a turn?" Elsa asked him.

"I am not one bit jealous of you!" Kristoff declared.

"Liar!" Elsa sang back at him.

"You're not scared, are you Kristoff?" Anna asked him, getting off the couch and coming to stand over him.

He just gave her a look.

"I can make you a new cushion and add some ice embroidery if you'd like," Elsa offered.

"Remind me why I wanted to bring you ice-blocking?" Kristoff replied.

"So I could show you how to do it properly," Elsa said.

"You walked into that one," Bern observed.

"Fine, I'll ride on your ice couch," Kristoff grumbled, climbing to his feet. He sat down on the snow cushion next to Elsa and pointedly refused to put his feet up on the ottoman.

Elsa hung over the back of the couch and shot out a stream of magic. The ice couch started up the hill. At the top of the hill, Elsa got it turned around and then stopped.

"Now, if I understand your objection, this is too safe. You can't steer an ice block, and that's the whole point. Is that a correct understanding?" Elsa asked him.

"Exactly! This is like taking a ride in a baby carriage!" Kristoff said.

Elsa blew out a gust of wind to start them down the hill. "Even if it feels like it might be dangerous, you know it isn't because I'm here."

Kristoff nodded. The wind was in his hair, and the ice couch was picking up speed. This was sort of fun in a girly way.

"What if we take it off a jump? There's really nothing I can do once we're airborne," Elsa said. She aimed a blast of magic downhill and a snow ramp blew up out of nothing at the bottom of the hill.

"That's a big jump, Elsa!" Kristoff shouted.

"Yes, it is," Elsa said. "And it won't be dangerous enough for you if I'm still here. Bye, Kristoff!" Elsa jumped over the side of the couch and landed neatly on her feet in the snow.

"Elsaaaaaaaaa!" Kristoff yelled as the ice couch launched itself off the jump. As the couch started to overturn in the air, he shoved himself away from it and tucked and rolled, hitting the snow a safe distance away from the ice couch, which was still flying through the air. In fact, it flew through the air much longer than it should have, and then the air cushion of blue sparkles dropped it and it crunched into the snow lengthwise, the arm sticking up out of the snow and the snow cushions falling off.

Kristoff rolled himself upright, gasping in shock. "That happened!"

Elsa skied up next to him on a ribbon of ice that unrolled at her feet as Anna and Bern were trying to run over in the deep snow. Olaf skidded up and bounced to his feet.

"Not to gloat or anything, but Anna is going to kill you, and you totally deserve it," Kristoff told her.

"Anna suggested it, actually. You don't think I'd come up with something like that on my own, do you?" Elsa said sweetly.

Kristoff fell over onto his back and flung an arm across his face. "I'm doomed."

Elsa started to laugh and Kristoff peeked out from under his arm at her. It wasn't too many months ago that she'd told him that she never thought of anything to do with ice as fun. She might be getting it all wrong today, but she was having fun and he couldn't begrudge her that. In fact, he was rather proud of himself for insisting she come.

"It was just like landing on a pillow! Wasn't that fun?" Anna exulted as she reached them.

Kristoff pointed at her. "You! Are in so much trouble!"

"But you had fun!" Anna said. "I was only thinking of your enjoyment and how much you like crazy dangerous things that normal humans avoid. Wasn't it fun?"

There was really only one answer to that. "Yes."

"My goodness, she's absorbing those lessons on diplomacy remarkably well," Bern observed.

"And I'm so excited to try going down the hill on just an ice block again! I'm sure I'll love it this time," Anna declared.

"It's getting a bit thick, Anna," Bern said.

"Bern wants to go ice blocking again too, Kristoff. He just said so!" Anna said.

"I'll go again," Bern agreed.

"Elsa?" Kristoff asked, climbing to his feet.

"I suppose so," Elsa said.

"Really? And you'll do it the right way? You won't turn it into a couch?"

"I'll do it your way this time," Elsa assured him.

Three of them trudged up the hill through the deep snow. Elsa skimmed over the surface, her feet leaving footprints, but not breaking through the top of the snow. She got to the top before the rest of them and looked over the ice blocks in Kristoff's sled, giving Sven an absentminded pat.

"I want that one," Elsa told Kristoff, pointing to an ice block that was more rectangular than square.

Kristoff got the block out of the sled for her and she blew it over to the crest of the hill while he yanked out three more blocks.

Anna settled onto her ice block, keeping her word to look excited.

"Are you ready, Feistypants?" Kristoff asked her as he got himself situated on his own ice block.

"I was born ready!" she assured him, starting to bounce.

"Let's get this over with," Bern said.

"I'll race you down," Olaf said to Bern, jumping up and down.

"Kristoff? Does it still count as ice blocking if I stand instead of sit?" Elsa asked.

Kristoff gave her a look that was carefully not condescending as he pointed out, "if your feet slip, you could get killed."

Elsa was standing on the rectangle of ice, bending her knees, swaying back and forth and checking her balance while the ice block stayed still. She fluttered her fingers at the ice block, and straps of ice grew over the toes and heels of her boots, looking like sandal straps attaching the ice block to her feet.

Kristoff rolled his eyes.

"Stop being such a purist, Kristoff," Bern told him. "Let's go!"

Kristoff, Anna and Bern pushed off and went skidding down the hill. Olaf belly-flopped, hanging onto his butt snowball as he outdistanced them with a shout of glee.

"Wheeeeee!" Anna shrieked.

"I told you you'd love it!" Kristoff shouted at her. Then he yelled, "Get out of my way!"

"I can't steer!" Bern yelled back as his ice block angled over towards Kristoff.

Anna went zipping out into the meadow after Olaf as Kristoff and Bern collided at the base of the hill.

"Ouch," Bern said as they came to a stop.

"I've hit trees that were less painful than that," Kristoff said, rubbing his head. "That's going to swell."

"Stick your head in the snow," Bern suggested. "Even if it doesn't keep the swelling down, it sounds like something you ought to do."

Kristoff threw a snowball that didn't even come close to hitting Bern. He struggled to a sitting position and started prodding for bruises. Bern put a heavy hand on Kristoff's shoulder and managed to push himself to standing.

"Yep, you found a bruise. Thanks for that," Kristoff told him.

"Look at Elsa," Bern said, nodding towards the top of the hill as Anna and Olaf came to join them and Kristoff got to his feet.

Elsa was still standing on the rectangular block of ice, teetering on the lip of the hill. She edged closer, and then the ice block started to slide down the hill. She had her knees bent for balance as the block skidded first one way, and then turned and angled down the opposite way. As she started to pick up speed, the snow sprayed out every time she changed direction. Partway down the hill, Elsa cut across the slope, heading for the jump where she'd launched the ice couch.

"I am so jealous right now," Kristoff said.

Elsa crouched as she got to the base of the jump, and then all the speed of her run down the hill turned into altitude and she flew off the ramp. Her arms were spread wide, ice crystals spraying out from her fingertips and glinting in the bright winter sun. She made a full rotation, her braid following her around as she spun through the shower of ice diamonds. Even from here, Kristoff could see a smile as wide as Olaf's on her face as a shriek of pure joy cut through the air. She landed lightly, a fan of powder erupting around the ice block as she turned again and skidded towards them. With a shift of her weight, she edged the ice block to a stop next to them and took a couple of deep breaths through her laughter.

"Did I finally do it right?" Elsa asked him, cheeks pink from the wind and blue eyes lit up with excitement.

He said the only thing he could possibly say. "You did it exactly right, Elsa."

~###~

A few hours later, Elsa skied over to Kristoff's brand new sled and opened the side compartment where he stored supplies and gear. She searched past a neatly coiled rope, strips of rawhide, an extra axe head, and wax before finding the small metal canister exactly where Kristoff had said it would be. She skied back over to the fallen log where Anna was sitting and shivering.

Kristoff and Bern were arguing about how to get a fire started.

"That wood is too snowy. It won't burn," Kristoff objected.

"Yes it will. It's just a matter of having enough tinder under it. Besides, where are you going to find wood that isn't snowy around here?" Bern replied, stacking tiny twigs under the larger pieces of wood.

"I'll be okay until we get home," Anna offered, still shivering.

"If Bern will get out of my way, I can build a fire, Anna. We can get your feet warm before we head home, and warm up some rocks for you to put your feet on for the ride," Kristoff said.

"How about you get out of my way instead? I can build a fire," Bern said.

"Since when have you been able to do anything but write reports and attend meetings, Councilor?" Kristoff said.

"You trying to make my job sound like an insult? Every kid likes playing with matches. I've been building fires since I was old enough to pile up bark," Bern said. "Let me borrow your knife."

Kristoff handed Bern his belt knife. "I have a hard time believing your mother let you play with matches."

"Obviously, she didn't 'let' me play with matches. I did rebel against her occasionally," Bern said, shaving bark off a branch with Kristoff's knife.

"Name one other thing you did to rebel against her," Kristoff challenged him.

Bern had to think for a minute. "I refused to learn how to play the flute."

"You wild and crazy rebel," Kristoff said, crouching next to Bern and the pile of wood.

Bern shoved Kristoff off balance and he fell over into the snow, laughing at Bern.

Elsa listened to them affectionately insult each other and smiled. Bern was smart and responsible, but there weren't many people in Arendelle as rugged and independent as Kristoff. Bern was obviously trying to prove something to Kristoff, and she wasn't sure that would end well. "Are you really going up to the ice lakes with him next week, Bern?"

Bern gave her a rueful look and nodded. "I'm not sure why."

"You don't know nearly as much about ice as you need to know," Kristoff said.

Bern shoved him over again while Elsa pretended she hadn't heard that remark.

"Matches, please, Elsa," Bern said, holding out his hand.

Elsa handed him the metal canister, but the lid had come loose and all the matches fell into the snow.

"Snowy wood and wet matches. Can you let me do it?" Kristoff said.

Bern picked up the matches and elbowed Kristoff away again. "I can build a fire. There's not much I know how to do outdoors, but I can build a fire. Back off."

"Fine," Kristoff said, and went to sit by Anna.

Bern struck the match on a rock and set it to the tinder. It caught immediately. Within a few minutes, the bigger branches had caught as well and the flames crackled merrily. Bern added more wood.

Anna stretched her feet towards the flames and pulled off her mittens to hold them towards the fire as well. "You did it Bern!" Anna said.

"You don't have to sound so surprised," Bern said, holding his hands over the fire.

"Okay, fine, you know how to build a fire," Kristoff conceded. He held a wet, snowy mitten towards the flames.

"I can clean fish, too," Bern said.

"Great, you do the cooking next week," Kristoff replied. "Thanks for volunteering."

Bern shrugged.

"You know what's beautiful about a fire?" Elsa asked. "The flames look like sunflower petals."

Olaf waddled up. "I love heat!" He edged his way right up to the flames and leaned in until his face started to melt. Then he ran off, laughing, and waited for his snow flurry to firm his face back up.

Elsa sat on the log next to Anna and leaned her chin onto her hand, letting the flames hypnotize her. They flickered and crackled like enormous petals, sunflower petals of heat. Everyone else was reaching towards the fire, so she put her hand out too, even though she couldn't feel heat any more than she could feel cold. There was a strange sensation on her hand, like there really were sunflower petals pressing against her palm. It was soft and she liked it, right up until it started to hurt. She jerked her hand back and looked at it, then set her palm into the snow.

"What happened?" Anna asked her.

"It was like sunflower petals, and then it hurt," Elsa said. She pulled her hand out of the snow.

From Anna's other side, Kristoff reached over and grabbed her hand. "It looks like you burned it."

Elsa pulled away from him. "That's impossible. I can't get burned. I can't even feel heat."

"It's red," Kristoff said with a shrug.

Elsa folded her hands up together. Her palm stung. With her other hand, she focused the cold and drew the heat out of her red palm. The stinging stopped, and the red color went away. Elsa tucked her hand into a fold of her skirt and wondered what had just happened.

Olaf came up to melt his face a second time.

Kristoff and Bern started jabbing at each other about next week's trip to the ice lakes again. Elsa ignored them and held out her other hand towards the fire. There was that same sensation, like someone was rubbing sunflower petals on her palm. She took her hand back before it got to the point of pain and rubbed her hands together.

Anna looked at her quizzically. "What's going on?"

"I don't know, but I think I can feel the heat from the fire," Elsa said. "I don't know what heat is supposed to feel like, though. What does heat feel like?"

Anna blinked and searched for words. "I don't know how to describe heat without saying it's warm. It feels good, as long as you don't let it burn you."

Elsa decided it didn't matter what heat felt like to Anna, or if she and Anna were feeling the same thing from the fire. She liked the way the fire caressed her hand with sunflower petals. Again and again, she reached her hands towards the flames, pulling them back before the sensation started to sting. Olaf was doing the same thing, melting his face and then running off to let the snow firm up again.

Kristoff put rocks in the fire to heat for the ride home. When they got warm, but not hot enough to catch anything else on fire, he got a set of tongs and pulled them out of the fire, and set them in the sled on top of other rocks that were cool, forming a pile on the floor where Anna's feet would go.

"How are your feet, Feistypants?"

"Warm enough to be happy," Anna replied.

Kristoff picked her up and carried her to the sled. "We wouldn't want warm feet to go back in the snow, would we?"

Elsa suspected he was just looking for an excuse to hold Anna, but that didn't stop her from laughing at them as Kristoff deposited Anna on the front seat of the sled.

By the time she turned back, Bern had kicked the fire apart and was kicking snow over the burning wood.

"Oh!" she cried out in dismay.

He gave her a surprised look. "We're leaving. I'm putting out the fire."

Elsa crouched down and reached her hands towards the embers that were left, searching for the feeling of sunflower petals. "It felt good."

He gave her a quizzical look. "I didn't know you could feel heat."

"I don't know if it was heat; I don't know what it was – but I liked it," Elsa said sadly as she gave up on the dying embers and stood up.

"There are fires back at the castle too. I'm sorry I put out this one before you were ready," Bern said.

"It's all right; it wasn't important. I'm certainly not cold or anything," Elsa said, hurrying to reassure him. Bern was always too dismayed when he did something she might not like.

Elsa got in the sled. She and Bern and Olaf were sitting in the back. Kristoff and Anna got the front seat.

"Here, Bern," Kristoff said, and deposited another warm rock in the back of the sled. "Your feet okay, Elsa?"

"Of course," Elsa said.

She and Bern chatted cheerfully about the day, and the trip he was taking next week to the ice lakes with Kristoff. Elsa's mind wasn't really on what they were saying.

Back at the castle, she ate supper quickly and then made an excuse to go to her sitting room alone. There was always a fire laid and ready. Elsa only lit it if she needed the light, or if someone else was here. She struck the match and set it to the tinder. It took her a few tries, but the fire finally caught.

Elsa sat in front of it, waiting for the feeling of sunflower petals on her face. She leaned closer. Still nothing. Elsa stretched out her hand to the fire. It felt like there was nothing there, just like every other time she'd been around a fire.

"No!"

She put her hand right into the fire. The flames danced around it, looking like sunflower petals, but there was no feeling at all. She kept her hand there until her sleeve started to smoke. When she pulled her hand out, it wasn't even red. She pressed it to her cheek. Nothing. Maybe the fire had to be outdoors? Or maybe she'd just imagined what she'd felt that afternoon. No, it hadn't been her imagination, she was sure of it.

Elsa stepped onto the hearth. Above her fireplace she had hung the tapestry she'd purchased on Christmas Day. Other weavers had displayed tapestries of snow, but she had enough of snow without buying a picture. This tapestry was a single large sunflower, woven onto a summer blue sky. She put her hands over the woven petals, rubbing the cloth, pretending the petals were flickering like she'd felt at the fire earlier today.

Today had been the first time she'd had fun playing with her powers since the day she'd struck Anna with her magic when they were small children. But unlike that terrible day, nothing bad had happened today. Today had ended with unexpected wonder, the flicker of sunflower petals on her hands and face. It must have been heat. For a few minutes, she'd been just like everyone else. It would happen again, it just had to – maybe not tonight, but soon. Elsa leaned her cheek against the woven sunflower petals and promised herself that it would happen again.

* * *

**The next story in this series is "In Arendelle's Fair Kingdom." **


End file.
